1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a data storage unit and a redundant data storage system including such data storage unit. Moreover, in particular, the data storage unit according to the invention includes an internal storage area network (SAN) switch module, and the redundant data storage system according to the invention has simplified architecture, occupies less space, and significantly reduces installation cost thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current organizations, such as enterprises and so on, all demands redundant data storage systems to store and recover data. The redundant data storage system as demanded should consider current scale of the organization and its expansibility as the scale of the organization increasing in the future.
Referring to FIG. 1, the architecture of a redundant data storage system 1 of the invention is illustratively shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, the redundant data storage system 1 of the prior art includes a server 10, a server 12, a storage apparatus 14 and a storage apparatus 16. The server 10 and the server 12 both are connected to an intranet of an organization. The server 10 is respectively connected to the storage apparatus 14 and the storage apparatus 16. The server 12 is respectively connected to the storage apparatus 14 and the storage apparatus 16.
The storage apparatus 14 includes a controller 142 and a plurality of storage devices 144. The controller 142 is respectively connected to the plurality of storage devices 144. Similarly, the storage apparatus 16 includes a controller 162 and a plurality of storage devices 164. The controller 162 is connected to the plurality of storage devices 164. The plurality of storage devices 144 and the plurality of storage devices 164 can be respectively specified in a RAID architecture such as RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 2, RAID 3, RAID 4, RAID 5, RAID 6, and so on, or specified in a JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) architecture.
Under normal condition, the instructions of requirement of accessing data in the storage apparatus 14 are received and executed by the server 10. The instructions of requirement of accessing data in the storage apparatus 16 are received and executed by the server 12.
If the server 10 fails, the server 12 receives and executes the instructions of requirement of accessing data in the storage apparatus 14. If the server 12 fails, the server 10 receives and executes the instructions of requirement of accessing data in the storage apparatus 16. Thereby, the redundant data storage system 1 of the prior art can achieve the aim of data recovery.
However, each of the server 10, the server 12, the storage apparatus 14 and the storage apparatus 16 of the redundant data storage system 1 of the prior art is a stand-alone equipment which needs an individual housing, and individual power supply, an individual fan and other dissipating devices. Therefore, the redundant data storage system 1 of the prior art dose not only occupy much space, but also needs much installation cost.
In addition, if the redundant data storage system 1 of the prior art expands more servers and storage apparatuses, the redundant data storage system 1 even needs an external storage area network switch which has complicated architecture and costs expensively. The servers of the redundant data storage system 1 are connected to the storage apparatuses through the external storage area network switch. Obviously, this way significantly increases installation and needs much more space for the redundant data storage system 1 of the prior art.